Glossiphoniidae

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Glossiphoniidae
Placobdelloides siamensis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Clade:	Pleistoannelida
Clade:	Sedentaria
Class:	Clitellata
Subclass:	Hirudinea
Order:	Rhynchobdellida
Family:	Glossiphoniidae Vaillant, 1890
Subfamilies
Glossiphoniinae Haementeriinae Theromyzinae and see text

Glossiphoniidae are a family of freshwater proboscis-bearing leeches. These leeches are generally flattened, and have a poorly defined anterior sucker. Most suck the blood of freshwater vertebrates like amphibians, crocodilians and aquatic turtles, but some feed on invertebrates like oligochaetes and freshwater snails instead. Although they prefer other hosts, blood-feeding species will opportunistically feed from humans.

There is considerable interest in the symbiotic bacteria that at least some glossiphoniids house in specialized organs called bacteriomes. The bacteria are thought to provide the leeches with nutrients that are scarce or absent from their regular diets. Haementeria as well as Placobdelloides have Enterobacteriaceae symbionts, while Placobdella harbours peculiar and independently derived alphaproteobacteria.^{[citation needed]}